Mortlach 14, Douglas Laing's Premier Label, 178 decanters, 46% abv.

DL's Premier Label was recently relaunched, escaping from perhaps a Laing family induced hiatus or a realization of redundancy. These Premier Label bottlings are intriguing for their ceramic decanters and having labels with a lot of alliteration.

Nose: concentrated red grape juice, that initial whiff of freshly cut mango, in-between grape juice and tropical fruits. After a teaspoonful of water, apples and wax come out.

Palate: thick and viscous, initially a lot of sweet fruit, more like frozen tropical fruit used for juice and cocktails (tongue had to get used to it), back end was dull wood. After a teaspoonful of water, its less viscous, wood elements come first and the sweet fruits take a backseat. Overall, less intense than before. No smoke.

Finish: medium to short, presence of low levels of spice. Nothing sweet, nothing smokey, nothing vegetative, nothing wood related.

Initial sips had a very interesting flavor profile. Concentrated dull fruit "texture". I think I might have added too much water as everything seemed diluted afterwards. There basically was no finish. Wish there was more ooomph. Makes me wonder why ceramic decanters were used for this bottling. Actually makes me re-emphasize why DL keeps releasing essentially one of two types: young (i.e. Premier Label, Provenance, Single Minded) or OB duplicates (i.e. Old Particular, Clan Denny?); XOP is approaching acceptance into the OB duplicate grouping imho. Had this at Bar Fuji, Fukuoka, Japan.

Grade: C

Couldn't find quantifiable, reliable reviews.

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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